Digital alarm clocks are unnecessarily complicated in their set up. All too many individuals have missed important appointments when the alarm they thought they had correctly set up, did not awaken them. The volume may have been turned off. The switch may have been in the wrong position. Either the clock or the alarm time may not have been set for the time of day. Either the clock or the alarm time may have been inadvertantly set for PM when AM was intended. Setting the alarm prior to an important appointment is a procedure that must be undertaken, reconsidered, and then rechecked.
Many individuals do not regularly use an alarm. Many individuals have not adjusted their alarm for many months. Only occasionally when they must arise earlier do they need to adjust and rely on an alarm clock. They may not fully recollect how to ensure that the alarm clock rings for their early schedule. What is needed is an alarm clock with an intuitive keypad setup. An alarm clock which initially prompts and subsequently confirms entered information so that any time during or after information entry, the individual can simply glance at the face of the clock and confirm that what he intends is entered into the clock. It is also useful to have an lighted prompts which flash until each necessary selection is made. It is not unusual for an individual on a business trip to have a poor night's sleep prior to an important appointment. His body clock may have been thrown off and he cannot help waking up well in advance of his important appointment to ensure he arrives in a timely fashion. Hotels spend considerable time and energy on wake up calls. The desk clerks don't usually call at precise times. They don't even always call. What is needed is a failsafe alarm clock. A clock which is virtually foolproof in its setup, and a clock which visibly assures a conscientious individual that they will reliably be awakened.
Alarm clocks typically require two hands for set-up and the procedure is relatively complicated, frequently frustrating, and compatatively time consuming. They are neither intuitive or user friendly and preclude use by many handicapped individuals unable to access and manipulate multiple buttons and switches. A clock in which all data can be entered wholly through a readily accessible keypad not only facilitates use by handicapped individuals who otherwise would be unable to independently operate an alarm clock, but additionally facilitates rapid data entry by other individuals. Existing alarm clocks do not concurrently display more than one time parameter so that a user is forced to activate buttons or switches to view any programmed alarm time. What also is needed is an alarm clock that would continuously and concurrently show, at a glance, the time of day and all activated alarm times.